Remember...

It's NOT a civil war. It's just two groups fighting each other for supremacy of a country.

The UAE will retaliate

Dubai is threatening retaliation against American strategic and commercial interests if Washington blocks its $6.8 billion takeover of operations at several U.S. ports. - The Hill

So, the people that Bush claims are great allies will try and punish us if we don't let them run our ports?

I guess that settles the question of just how staunch they are as allies, eh?

"Let us run your ports, even though we will become your enemies as soon as you don't do everything we want."

Good idea, George.

Bush attacks Congress

Bush: Congress 'Shortchanged' New Orleans

Whatcha think? IS Bush retaliating for Congress not letting him sell the running of our ports to his buddies, the Middle Eastern dictators?

Is he so arrogant and stupid that he doesn't realize that a sycophantic Congress is the only thing standing between him and the law?

Is the man such a fool that he is setting his own party up to lose Congress by calling them incompetent?

"Bush speaks to the audience as if they're idiots. I think the reason he does that is because that's the way these issues were explained to him." – Graydon Carter

"Bush didn't really win on his popularity last time. He won on scaring people that Kerry might do something stupid like, I don't know, sell the ports to the Arabs." – Bill Maher

Attribution

Poison for sale

When do Republicans stop believing in the sovereignty of States? When it affects the bottom line of giant corporations, that's when:

House Moves to Strip Food Warning Labels

The House voted Wednesday to strip many warnings from food labels, potentially affecting alerts about arsenic in bottled water, lead in candy and allergy-causing sulfites, among others.

Pushed by food companies seeking uniform labels across state lines, the bill would prevent states from adding food warnings that go beyond federal law. States could petition the Food and Drug Administration to add extra warnings, under the bill.

This bill is going to overturn 200 state laws that protect our food supply," said Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif. "Why are we doing that? What's wrong with our system of federalism?"

Aside from the sheer reprehensiblity of stripping warning labels from food products (what, exactly, is gained by doing so?), and aside from the fact that it is a graphic demonstration of how totally in thrall elected official are to big money corporations - what could be the LOGICAL justification of not allowing states to place warning labels on their own food?

Gee, George, your cheek must sting.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In an election-year repudiation of President Bush, a House panel dominated by Republicans voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to block a Dubai-owned firm from taking control of some U.S port operations.

By 62-2, the Appropriations Committee voted to bar DP World, run by the government of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, from holding leases or contracts at U.S. ports. Bush has promised to veto any such measure passed by Congress, but there is widespread public opposition to the deal and the GOP fears losing its advantage on the issue of national security in this fall's elections.

As the panel acted, Democrats on the other side of the Capitol were clamoring for a vote on the same issue in the GOP-led Senate.

"We believe an overwhelming majority will vote to end the deal," said Democrat Charles Schumer of New York, whose attempt to force the issue to the floor brought the Senate to a late-afternoon standstill.

62 to 2.

Let's see if Bush makes good on using his veto pen for the first time EVER.

Those Republicans should be forewarned. Bush is an extremely vindictive, petty little boy who throws tantrums when he doesn't get his way.

So he may do the stupidest thing ever: try and get them back.

He may not realize that Congress can do pretty much anything they want to, and they have been the only thing allowing the clown to get away with crimes and impeachable offenses.

Technically, they have him by the balls. And he's probably too damned egotistical and stubborn to realize it.

Bodies found garroted in Baghdad

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The bodies of 18 men, bound, blindfolded and strangled, were found in a Sunni Arab district of Baghdad, apparent victims of sectarian turmoil gripping Iraq and threatening the formation of a coalition government.

That damn liberal media! Why don't they focus on all the Iraqis who WEREN'T strangled to death yesterday? And the Vice-President has gone two weeks without shooting somebody in the face, and they don't even MENTION it!

UPDATE:

And what about all the people who weren't taken hostage by gunmen in camouflage uniforms? How come the media doesn't talk about THAT?

Uniformed Gunmen Take 50 Hostages In Baghdad
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Gunmen in camouflage uniforms stormed the offices of a private security company Wednesday and kidnapped as many as 50 employees, police reported.

"What are you benching, buff guy?"

Matt Drudge (whom I really have no choice about linking to, in this instance) has excerpts of a Vanity Fair interview with disgraced lobbyist and future whistleblower Jack Abramoff.

Some excerpts:

"You're really no one in this town unless you haven't met me. This is not an age when you can run away from facts. I had to deal with my records, and others will have to deal with theirs."

"In a different era I'd be killed on the street or have poison poured into my coffee."

On President Bush, who claims not to remember having his picture taken with Abramoff. According to Abramoff, at one time, the president joked with Abramoff about his weight lifting past: "What are you benching, buff guy?"

Newt Gingrich, whose spokesman Rick Tyler tells Margolick that "Before [Abramoff's] picture appeared on TV and in the newspapers, Newt wouldn't have known him if he fell across him. He hadn't seen him in 10 years." A rankled Abramoff says "I have more pictures of [Newt] than I have of my wife." Abramoff shows Margolick numerous photographs: "Here's Newt. Newt. Newt. Newt. More Newt. Newt with Grover [Norquist, the Washington conservative Republican Über-strategist and longtime Abramoff friend] this time. But Newt never met me. Ollie North. Newt. Can't be Newt ... he never met me. Oh, Newt! What's he doing there? Must be a Newt look-alike.... Newt again! It's sick! I thought he never met me!"

Desertion

I would compare the Republicans to rats deserting a sinking ship, but that would be unfair to the rats.

Mind you, I think that for once in their misbegotten lives, the Republicans actually did the right thing. But for the wrong reasons. If Bush's approval was 51% instead of 34%, they'd sell America in a heartbeat.

Efforts by the White House to hold off legislation challenging a Dubai-owned company's acquisition of operations at six major U.S. ports collapsed yesterday when House Republican leaders agreed to allow a vote next week that could kill the deal.

0-for-life

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday there has always been a risk Iraq could plunge into civil war but he accused the news media of exaggerating the gravity of the current situation. - Reuters

Gee, I've looked and I can't find Rumsfeld ever before MENTIONING this "risk" that he now says has "always" been there.

There's stuff like this, though:

Rumsfeld doesn't expect civil war in Iraq
7:35 p.m. October 4, 2004

NEW YORK – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Monday he does not expect civil war in Iraq and pointed to the recent retaking of the former insurgent stronghold of Samarra as evidence of progress in stabilizing the country before elections in January.

There's also THIS little blast from the past:

[I]t is not knowable if force will be used, but if it is to be used, it is not knowable how long that conflict would last. It could last, you know, six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.

The scary thing isn't that these clowns are 0-for-life when it comes to accurately predicting the outcome of their own actions.

The scary thing is that they STILL think that they never make mistakes.

Ok - so MESS with Texas

"Texas - where men are men and DeLay is nervous."

There is a primary in Texas today. It will be interesting to see the result, and see if disgust with Bush has even reached the epicenter of Bushiness.

Everybody's favorite crooked politician, Tom DeLay, is being primaried by three challengers. He is expected to get the most votes, but NOT 50%, which means he has to have a runoff against one person where he is very likely to lose. One can always hope.

So, what is DeLay doing on election night, as a way to dispel the stench of corruption of lobbyists' money?

He's going to a fundraiser for himself, given by two Washington lobbyists.

You decide: Clueless, or brazen, or both?

Well, what can you expect from a guy who flies to his own arraignment on a corporate jet owned by R.J. Reynolds?

Not a Civil War.

It's not. It's just two sides killing each other over who gets to rule the country. But it's not a civil war.

TIM RUSSERT: Knight-Ridder reported this week that U.S. intelligence [agencies] more than two years ago said that the insurgency “had deep local roots, was likely to worsen, and could lead to civil war.”

And that was just ignored by political and military leadership because they wanted to believe their own rosy scenario.

Gen. PETER PACE: I do not believe it has deep roots. I do not believe that they’re on the verge of civil war. - Press the Meat

Uhhh...yeah.

But you also thought that the whole thing would be a cakewalk, remember?

Can anybody name ANY prediction about Iraq made by this administration that has actually turned out to be accurate?

These idiots just assume that things will turn out the way that they want them to, and they take NO steps to prepare for anything but rosy best-case scenarios. Again and again and again.

And they HAVEN'T LEARNED.

Disaster after disaster after disaster and mistake after mistake after mistake and they STILL HAVEN'T LEARNED.

Even Indiana

Indiana voted twice to elect George W. Bush to the White House, but an Indianapolis Star poll indicates more than half of Hoosiers now disapprove of the job he's doing as president.

Only 37 percent of those surveyed last week think Bush is doing a good job as president, while 56 percent disapprove. - Indystar

Wow.

I'd like to see his numbers in places where he's never BEEN popular, like New York. I mean, what must it be? 10% or something?

"If George W. Bush was running against Vlad the Impaler, who would you vote for?"

Halliburton, Welfare and Reagan

Here

Sue the Bastards

The most frightening thing about the eavesdropping thing isn't that Bush broke the law. It's that the man ADMITTED it, and admitted to an impeachable offense, and essentially said, "So what you gonna do about it?" - and nobody did anything about it.

The Republican Party is willing to turn the United States into a dictatorship, as long as a Republican gets to be dictator.

Well, some citizens are trying to do something about it, and may actually succeed:

Of all the lawsuits seeking to halt the National Security Agency's program to eavesdrop on certain Americans' electronic communications, a new one filed last week in Oregon may provide the federal courts with the most detailed glimpse yet into the clandestine counterterrorism effort.

The biggest challenge for such cases - which have also been filed in New York, Michigan, and California - is that plaintiffs don't have access to records of highly classified government surveillance activities and therefore can't be sure they were personally subjected to covert phone- tapping or e-mail reading by the US government.

The Oregon suit may manage to leap over that imposing legal hurdle. Lawyers and their clients apparently have seen phone logs and other top-secret records inadvertently provided, and then hastily recovered, by government officials.

"In the [court] motion there is material under seal, which we will rely on in our case," says lawyer Tom Nelson...."We can't get into what's there, but we have very specific information on what happened, when it happened, and what was intercepted. We obviously think it will be helpful in court in proving our contention."

Don't you love "imposing legal hurdle" for "government-created Catch-22"?

"We won't tell you who we're spying on!"

"Well, then, we'll sue you find out!"

"You CAN'T sue us if you don't know who we're spying on!"

Scarily, 35% of the country is still willing to put up with that crap.

But the number is getting smaller every day.

Both ice caps are melting

ABC News- For the first time, scientists have confirmed Earth is melting at both ends, which could have disastrous effects for coastal cities and villages.

Antarctica has been called "a slumbering giant" by a climate scientist who predicts that if all the ice melted, sea levels would rise by 200 feet. Other scientists believe that such a thing won't happen, but new studies show that the slumbering giant has started to stir.

Recent studies have confirmed that the North Pole and the South Pole have started melting....

"The warming ocean comes underneath the ice shelves and melts them from the bottom, and warmer air from the top melts them from the top," said NASA glaciologist Jay Zwally. "So they're thinning and eventually they get to a point where they go poof!"

Zwally explains that the ice shelves, which the Antarctic ice cap pushes out into the ocean, are responding more than they expected to Earth's warming air and water. If the melting speeds up to a rapid runaway process called a "collapse," coastal cities and villages could be in danger...

James Hansen, director of NASA's Earth Science Research, said that disaster could probably be avoided, but that it would require dramatically cutting emission outputs. If the proper actions aren't taken, Hansen said, the sea level could rise as much as 80 feet by the time today's children reach middle age.

"We now must choose between a serious problem that we can probably handle and, if we don't act soon, unmitigated disaster down the road," Hansen said.

Unfortunately, as we have all noticed, the clown in the White House ALWAYS opts for unmitigated disaster down the road, when offered that choice.

You know what bothers me most about the global warming debate? That there IS a political debate. It's a SCIENTIFIC question. It should have nothing to do with politics at ALL. But it's treated like a political one. As though what matters isn't whether or not it is occurring - a purely factual question - but spinning it and minimizing it. And for what? So a handful of people - whom most of us have no use at all for - won't have to slightly cut back on their obscene profits? Let the cities drown, just don't affect my bottom line? Is that it?

One way you know which "side" (and what a thing for their to be sides to, eh?) is telling you the truth is by the old Watergate testL "Follow the money." Those who claim that global warming is occurring have no vested financial interest in saying so. They have nothing to gain by taking the stance they take. But those who claim it ISN'T have a very STRONG financial stake in denying it. So you know which of those two is most likely to be lying to you.

Remember - the tobacco companies found scientists who were willing to deny that cigarettes were bad for you, too.

Well, at least if it happens, Bush will be out of office, so we won't have to hear him say, "Nobody anticipated the ice caps melting."

A Human Disaster

Ok, so now we have it. Bush was warned, in very clear terms, that Katrina looked like it was going to be a gigantic disaster. He was warned that there was the possibility of the levees being topped, and that it posed a "grave danger." He was told by Michael Brown that this might be the "big one."


And his response was to STAY ON VACATION. His response was to do THIS:



And THIS:



And make sure he got a PHOTO-OP of himself watching it from a PLANE:



And WHEN did he FINALLY realize that it was a SERIOUS problem? According to his own words, it was when he was WATCHING TV, and saw the people SCREAMING:

VARGAS: When you look back on those days immediately following when Katrina struck, what moment do you think was the moment that you realized that the government was failing, especially the people of New Orleans?

BUSH: When I saw TV reporters interviewing people who were screaming for help. It looked — the scenes looked chaotic and desperate. And I realized that our government was — could have done a better job of comforting people.

They "could have done a better job of comforting people."

They didn't need a HUG, you clown.

The caption says it all:

Liar

Bush was warned - in plain, unequivocal terms - about what Katrina would do, and they have him being warned on video.

The man is not just incompetent and clueless - he is filthy liar. And he lies about stuff that causes people to DIE. By the THOUSANDS.